Alexa Fredston

I'm a marine ecologist fascinated by the way human activities are reshaping the planet, and what that tells us about fundamental properties of nature. Most of my research centers around the question: Why are species found where they are, and what makes them move? The oceans are a dynamic and exciting place to study this question, because species are rapidly migrating all the time, and because so humans rely on the oceans for so much—jobs, food, culture, storm protection, and much more. I use cutting-edge tools to explore these questions, from Bayesian models to environmental DNA.

In 2023 I became an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ocean Sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Previously, I was a postdoctoral researcher at Rutgers University. I earned a PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2020, and graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 2012. From 2012-2014 I worked at the Environmental Defense Fund in San Francisco.

December 2022